Episode 200

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Dim the lights, slather on some greasepaint and dust off your all-black wardrobe. To celebrate the 200th episode of Earth-2.net: The Show, Jenny and Mike sat down to discuss The Crow! First they explore the origins of the goth / punk icon by reviewing the James O'Barr comic book. Afterwards they set their sights on the 1994 film starring Brandon Lee. Also, the winner of the big, mysterious prize is finally announced! [ 3:35:41 || 98.7 MB ]

The above is from: http://www.earth-2.net/theshow/episodes/e2ts_200.mp3

[The Joker's Groupie]

Congrats on making to 200 Mike and Jenny :urock:

[Blane]

Oh fuck yes The Crow. I'm going to give this a listen now. I usually wait for work but episode 200 is special!

[Guest]

Holy Jeebus that prize package was ridiculous.

Not finished listening, but... fuck, I hope that lucky winner appreciates it.

[Dan]

My identical cousin, coincidentally also named Dan Toland and who happens to live in my house, but who totally isn't me and therefore could totally have entered, is raging at the sky even as we speak.

Holy crap, that's a lot of swag.

[Malpractice]

That was a pretty cool prize package, wish i had entered. It would of been worth it just for the Surrogates trade, and the Suicide Girls subscription alone.

"Burn" by The Cure is played in this episode so it's awesome factor goes up by many points.

[George W.]

Great show so far. I'm seriously intrigued by the suggestion that Eric survived and needed the morphine.

Yoda, "Showdown in Little Tokyo" was the Dolph Lundgren/Brandon Lee movie you were thinking of.

[Malpractice]

In relation to Jame's O'Barr's opinion on The Crow movie, i believe he enjoyed it quite a bit, and thought Brandon Lee's performance completly brought his creation to life.

[Malpractice]

That's a pretty good theory about Eric not dying in the comic Mike. While there is a lot of evidence that Eric actually never died, there is actually just as much evidence to the contrary. My personal take on it is that it is intentionally supposed to be ambigious. Almost as if the book is trying to say that alive or dead this man is incomplete, and justice needed to be served before he could be at peace with himself. It's kind of like the "is Deckard a replicant or not" argument. Although, Eric not being dead does make more sense considering that this book is basically James O'Barr's metaphorical revenge fantasy for the drunk driver that killed his girlfriend, and he needed to write/draw this in order to be at peace with himself.

I have to say i think it's kind of funny that you guys basically boiled the comic down to "one gun fight after another gun fight", and that it didn't have much depth, but when this comic was released it was praised for having so much depth, and not just being "one guy in cape and tights fighting another guy in capes and tights". I am not saying you guys are wrong, but i just thought it was kind of ironic. I haven't read the book in years so who knows i might actually agree with you guys now, but I just remember this book completley flooring me when i was younger.

Nine Inch Nails "Dead Souls" is played as well. This episode just keeps getting better.

In relation to The Crow sequel City Of Angels, the movie got seriously botched by the studio, and they edited it so that the story ran parallel to the first movie in sequence structure, and they cut out important scenes, etc. I am not saying it would of been a great movie or anything but it never really got a fair shake in the first place. I have been trying to get my hands on the original cut or the workprint of the movie for years, but haven't had any luck, even David Goyer's script is hard to find. I always will have a soft spot for that movie though because it has my favorite band the Deftones performing in the Day of The Dead sequence towards the end of the movie.

[annericelover]

Congrats on the winner of the contest. I wonder why DC and Marvel didn't lend a hand in giving prizes. I haven't yet reached the comic status most of you'se are, so all of the comic companies mention I have no idea what they are. Suicide Girls, I know because I like Goth Women(even though I don't go on the site, I actually found out about them because they did an album booklet).

I haven't managed to pick up The Crow comics yet. I have seen the films and cringed at each one after the first. Here are my thoughts on all of them:

The Crow (1994) Brandon Lee, just like his father Bruce Lee leaves us with a film that will define him as an actor forever. Brandon Lee was a great actor, but due to the tragic circumstances on the making of the film, he is most defined here. Lee plays the character of Eric Draven, a "Nice Rock N Roll" guy who meets an untimely death on the eve of his wedding with his one true love(who dies hours later).

First off, I wanna correct something, Eric Draven is NOT The Crow, the film does what the Frankenstein films (Universal and Hammer Films)and refers to power the main character is driven from. Eric Draven is given his strength and power through The Crow, in the comics and in deleted scenes Michael Berryman played The Skull Cowboy, a mentor of sorts to Eric who instructs him on his mission and keeps him on track. The setting of the film is great, its dark, gritty and even depressing. It's in color, but due to darkness of the film it keeps the Black & White tone of the comics very well. The music is excellent, probably the best in the whole series. I am not a fan of Grunge Rock, but the tracks here seem to fit with the film. Each character that are brought into the film are given a great amount of time on screen(watch out for a pre-Candyman Tony Todd). Michael Wincott and Bai Ling are definately one of freakiest villains I have seen onscreen in a long time and give an excellent performance as the incestrual couple(their brother and sister, with the same father). The character of Gideon in the comics was modeled after cameo actor Jon Polito and here he plays Gideon and he does an awesome job, no death has been sweeter tha his in this film(except maybe T-Birds). Gramme Revill's score on this is so poetic, it's creepy and operatic at the same time. I actually have this as my theme score on my myyearbook profile. Ernie Hudson manages to grab himself a winning performance after almost being type-casted as Winston in the Ghostbusters films.

James O' Barr had a large part in the production of this film and it shows. The plotline for this film was remade in a way in the TV Series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven in a less than dark way, but the TV Series was actually done really well. The ratings were high, but because of the lack of enthusiasm from the studio and the uncanny and sometimes disturbing resemblance of the actor Mark Dacascos to Brandon Lee the series was cancelled after only 1 Season:(

I won't continue with this review since I've said pretty much everything needed to be said about he film, so here is my score of the film 8 out of 10 points.

The Crow: City of Angels (1996) Okay, I will go on here and say that I really liked this film. When you step aside and you don't compare it to the original it really is a decent film. The problem here is that the Producers and of course Dimension/Miramax(still owned by Disney at the time) really screwed the final cut of the film up. Many of the scenes that gave more exposition were deleted, so much so that when the Director was asked to do a commentary on the film for the DVD he said no. When you here the commentary for the film its a negative look on the film. Vincent Perez in my opinion does a great job as the new man who is given the powers of The Crow. This time around Ashe Corvin and his son witness a murder and are shot dead and left for dead by the group. With the help of survivor Sarah(played in the first by Rochelle Davis and now by Mia Kirshner, also this is the only connecting film)Ashe is given the look Eric Draven donned in the original. The film this time is even darker than the original and has shades of yellow in the dark city streets, which in this we see more of a wasteland version of LA, once again giving this a timeless feel. The late Thuy Trang who made a huge name for herself as Trini, the Yellow Ranger in the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series, makes an Elizabeth Burkely type opposite character move here. In this film she's a sick pain inflicted type of girl. Also Iggy Pop(who also contributes to the soundtrack)plays another villain who just like Funboy in the original(he actually auditioned for the Funboy role and didn't get it)is always on drugs. The main villain in this film is no Michael Wincott, but he holds his own. We get to have for one last time the Gramme Revill Score in this film as well, which I love and furthers keeps in continuity with the original.

During the 90's Dimension Film/Miramax was owned by Disney and for whatever reason started to first ruin a franchise than release nothing but Direct to Video sequels. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers was the first to be butchered in editing room(with 6 Different Versions of the film), The Crow: City of Angels was the 2nd to get this butchered treatment, 30 minutes of the film was cut and very little people have seen the footage. Dimension has said plenty of times they wanted to release the original version, but Disney still owns the rights to the cut footage. Ever since the box office failure of this film Dimension has continued to released Direct to Video sequels. Hellraiser: Bloodline was the last in line to get this treatment and have D2V Sequel treatment. We also got a slew of music videos featuring scenes from the film starting from Hole's "Gold Dust Woman" and going to Above the Law featuring Frost's "City of Angels" and none were featured on the DVD release:(

I will give this film 5 out of 10.

The Crow: Stairway to Heaven (1998-1999) This is virtually a lighter remake of the original film and comic by James O'Barr and is done pretty well. The story is stretched out, so the film's plot is given a Season long story arc. The series was the studios attempt to cash in on the success of the film series and although it did really well in the TV Ratings, the studio decided their interest had peeked an cancelled it. Each episode was 42-43 minutes long and rounded out to 22 Episodes, making it the short lived, but highly rated TV Series. Some have speculated that another reason for the cancellation was the remarkable resemblance of actor Mark Dacascos to that of Brandon Lee when donning the make-up and even at times without the make up. I haven't seen the whole season yet, but it is available on DVD and on AOLTV site. The series so far, for is incredible, it may not be as dark as the original film or even the comic books, but from what I heard its a closer adaptation to the comic book(minus the Skull Cowboy again). The way Eric Draven is given the make up here is cool too, he basically just wills himself to develop the make up. I will go on a limb here and rate this series a 7 out of 10.

The Crow: Salvation (2000) This sequel is what began the real decline of the series and brought a sense of commercial filmmaking. I still enjoyed the film, as it does try to give it a murder/mystery type story to it. Eric Mabius plays Alex Corvis, a man wrongly accused of the murder of his girlfriend Laurin Randall(played by Jodi Lynn O'Keefe)and is sentenced to death by electric chair for her murder. He is returned by The Crow to find those who killed her and caused his death. To do this he goes after the men who on the stand as "Witnesses" and begins his search for a man he believes killed her, a man with a strange tatoo or peircing. In this film with no connection with the original film, we get a new way the character dons the make up we've seen in the previous films. Due to te extensive burns, his face peels off in the fashion that the make up is put on. Pretty cool too.

The one problem, I had with the film was the famous faces we see. The previous films had star power, but weren't so high profile. Eric Mabius I don't think made Resident Evil and this film was released before Kirsten Dunst first appeared in Spider-Man, but other actors here who had garnered fame are Dale Midkiff(Pet Semetary and Elvis and Me), Fred Ward(Tremors, Tremors II) and William Atherton(Ghostbusters films, Die Hard I & II), who did great jobs in this film, but I feel were too high profile. The music here is pretty decent also features high profile artist, like Rob Zombie who remixed his hit "Living Dead Girl" which was made into a music video, not featured on the DVD, but is on his Special Edition version of Hellbilly Deluxe album. Being that this has no connection with the original(except for one reference)we don't get Gramme Revill's score:( Fred Ward is an excellent villain here, very creepy and some of the visuals are still good.

Sadly because of the previous film this was release Direct to DVD, but it actually fits in it too. Here I will give this 5 out 10.

The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005) Okay this will be a short review, as this film SUCKS, almost nothing about this film is good. I found myself bored as f*** when watching this. It was given a one week theatrical release in Seattle, Washington and was released on DVD a little bit laters. Just like in the previous film, we get high profile actors. Edward Furlong(T2: Judgment Day, Pet Semetary II and Aerosmith's "Livin on the Edge"), David Boreanaz(Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Bones TV Series). Tara Reid(the American Pie films), Danny Trejo(Rob Zombie's Halloween, The Devil's Rejects), Emmanuelle Chriqui(Wrong Turn, On the Line), Dennis Hopper(Speed, True Romance), even Macy Gray(Spider-Man). While I enjoyed the performance from David Boreanaz and Danny Trejo, the rest of the film sucked. This film did do one thing and that was give us the look of what John Connor in T3 if Edward Furlong was given a chance to play him in the film.

Ok basically the film takes place in a run down Reservation site where much of the land has been polluted to almost unlivable conditions. Danny Trejo is the man who everyone looks up too and the father of Emmanuelle Chriqui. The beginning of the film starts off with the reservation going through preperations for the Raven Festival, Jimmy Cuervo an ex-con who was jailed for the death of a would-be rapist and hated by everyone except Lily(Emmanuelle Chriqui)is preparing the leave town as his probation is ending and wants to take Lily with him(they have been secretly having a romance together). On the night that he is preparing to leave with her his old pal Luc Crash(David Borenaz) and his group of Satanic Worshippers come by and kill them in a Satanic Ritual, that will endow Luc with all the powers of Satan and help the anti-christ be born into the world. Jimmy is brought back by The Crow's powers and dons the make up similar to the Raven Festivals insignia(which amazingly is the same as Eric Draven's make up)and heads out to destroy them one by one.

Okay, the studio even thought this fil, sucked, it sat on the shelf for a long while before being released(due to fan request). Dennis Hopper in this is so cartoony I was shocked that he played in this piece of crap, but than I saw his similar portrayel in "Land of the Dead" and thought, wow he must have sunk bottom in his career. The music was terrible, the acting was over the top much of the time. The only solid performances here are from Danny Trejo as the grieving father, who becomes an ally to his once hated Jimmy and David Boreanaz, who takes his Angelus persona from Buffy and Angel and gives it a heartbeat(fans of those series will know what I mean). So far, my review on this film is a better read than watching the film. So here is my score on this piece of filth 2 out of 10(the 2 are for Boreanaz and Trejo).

[Missy]

Malpractice: I can see why people connect with the comic, and I do think it's a decent enough book, but he's really just an unstoppable guy in a mask (RE: face paint) and cape (RE: trench coat) fighting villains. In fact, the over-the-top emo Batman in "I Am the Night" isn't all that different from the Crow in the comic. Had they traded outfits, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.

I wonder why DC and Marvel didn't lend a hand in giving prizes.

It's not a big deal.

Oh, and Wicked Prayer sucks fucking ass! Jen and I gave it a shot this evening, and, yeah, we only got about halfway through. This is the first movie in a very long time (ever?) that I stopped watching due to poor quality. Abysmal is the only word I can think of to describe it.

If this is how Boreanaz portrayed Angel, yeah, that's not making me want to see either series.

[annericelover]

Malpractice: I can see why people connect with the comic, and I do think it's a decent enough book, but he's really just an unstoppable guy in a mask (RE: face paint) and cape (RE: trench coat) fighting villains. In fact, the over-the-top emo Batman in "I Am the Night" isn't all that different from the Crow in the comic. Had they traded outfits, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.

I wonder why DC and Marvel didn't lend a hand in giving prizes.

It's not a big deal.

Oh, and Wicked Prayer sucks fucking ass! Jen and I gave it a shot this evening, and, yeah, we only got about halfway through. This is the first movie in a very long time (ever?) that I stopped watching due to poor quality. Abysmal is the only word I can think of to describe it.

If this is how Boreanaz portrayed Angel, yeah, that's not making me want to see either series.

Well Boreanaz in the series Buffy and Angel had a version of his character called Angelus who was the souless version of the vampire character. In the series he relishes and plays around before killing or torturing his victims. This character is just a hyped up version, who happens to be human, not a souless vampire.

[Missy]

Even still, his acting here was terrible. If it's anything like Angelus... yikes!

[annericelover]

I've seen the first film so much, here are the lines you forgot.

"Victims, Aren't We All?" is the line that you and Jenny are referring too when Tin Tin is about to die.

"Is That Gasoline I Smell?" "No Man" is the lines in the Gideon's blown up scene.

"It looks like blood Detective, but you'd probably write it up as Gra-Fi-ti" at Tin Tin's murder scene

"Let Go of Me, You Creep" after Eric saved Sarah from being hit by the car.

"There's a Big F***ing Bird Over There" "Come Here, Birdie, Birdie"

"You Almost Gave me a F***ing heart attack"

"What are you waiting for? You got me Dead Bang"

"And the Devil saw how goodness felt, goodness felt..."

"We Shot you, we killed you dead, there is no coming back, this is the really real world, there ain't no coming back"

"I see you have made your descision, now let's see you enforce it" "Ahh this shit's already boring the shit outta me, KILL HIM"

In case you were wondering about why all of a sudden Eric's wounds don't go away after his run in with Funboy. The Skull Cowboy explains to Eric that he has a mission, he can't intefere with the problems of the living. When he took the Morphine out of Darla, he broke the rule and his power was weakened. In another cut scene, before Eric kills Funboy, Funboy wakes up and starts to fight with Eric hurting him. Later on, when Eric is completely stripped of his powers, we are made to believe its because The Crow has been captured, but it's actually because his mission is done, because the men directly responsible for Eric's and Shelley's death are dead and saving Sarah from Top Dollar isn't his business. The original ending had him living in pergatory for disobeying his calling to return to his grave and he never is reuinted with Shelley. I actually felt sorry for T-Bird too, he is so sympathetic in that one scene. He isn't remourseful or anything, but you still feel bad. Also the death is so terrifying, can you imagine being tied down, having a flare gernade thrown in your lap and than being run into the water as the car blows up and you know he knew he was gonna die and couldn't do anything about it(like the stepfather's death in Rob Zombie's Halloween). You have to remember Top Dollars sister is a mystic of sorts, so its not too far off to have "The Killer of Killers. "

In The Crow: City of Angels, the mystic girl IS meant to be Top Dollar's sister, she has a moment of redemption(or does she)and helps Sarah out. I say maybe because, remember she can see the future, who says she didn't see the death of Sarah if she escaped and out of revenge for her brother's death and what happened to her, she set Sarah up to die.

Also the original ending to The Crow II, We have Vincent Perez being condemned to live out eternity on Earth alone, because he chose to go and save Sarah instead of going to his son. I have the DVD for The Crow: City of Angels, it's only available in the box set, which I'm not sure if it's still sold, but it only features the first 3 films. It reads the Director's Cut, but it's not. The director didn't even wanna do a commentary. The director faught to have the original version released, but because of the rights issues with Disney it wasn't released that way.

I HAVE THE SOUNDTRACKS MIKE:

Mike, if you ever want, I have the main theme composed by Gramme Revill, as well as the first 2 Soundtracks. Just let me know how I can send it to you through a file and I will, its extremely hard to get off of file sharing programs(trust me it took me hours). Great theme. Or like you were going to do for me when I almost ended up in the hospital, I'll burn them for you and mail them to you.

Lol, I didn't know Ghost World was based on a comic. Wow, I liked that film too. Thanks Mike for that tidbit. David Patrick Kelley who played T-Bird was notable for me as a young kid because he played the friendly homeless poet named....drum role please.....Double-T in the Mystery Solving PBS Show Ghostwriter...Word, lol

JENNY!!!!! HOW CAN YOU SAY YOU DON'T CARE FOR ROBOCOP!!! Sacrilage...lol

Umm, Mike, John Glover was in Robocop II, not Robocop I. He was also in Gremlins II: The New Batch and the dismal Batman & Robin.

[Missy]

Hmm. I thought the MagnaVolt commercial was in the first RoboCop, but whatever. It was a RoboCop film, that's all that matters.

[Guest]

Even still, his acting here was terrible. If it's anything like Angelus... yikes!

Yeah, he generally plays the same character with every role he does, which is part of the reason I disliked his Hal Jordan so much.

[Stavros]

Even still, his acting here was terrible. If it's anything like Angelus... yikes!

He's actually great as Angelus. A lot of it is great writing but when you come to it you'll really enjoy that character.

[annericelover]

Hmm. I thought the MagnaVolt commercial was in the first RoboCop, but whatever. It was a RoboCop film, that's all that matters.

It's in the very beginning of Robocop II,

the very first scene is a commercial. I remember this because I thought it was really a part of the movie, until I saw the MagnaVolt sign

. I first watched part II on Commercial TV.

I would love for you guys to do a Robocop series episode. I'll put out my reviews on all three of the films, the cartoon series and the live action series. It will be fun. I'll even give my opinion on the Robocop vs Terminator Video Games.

[annericelover]

Even still, his acting here was terrible. If it's anything like Angelus... yikes!

Yeah, he generally plays the same character with every role he does, which is part of the reason I disliked his Hal Jordan so much.

No, I'm sorry the character of Hal Jordan and Angelus or even Angel are completely different portrayels. The parts that he plays up until Hal Jordan had been similar characters. Even the character he plays in Bones has a little of the Angel character in it, but just like Julian McMahan(Charmed, Nip/Tuck and the Fantastic Four films), plays similar characters in his roles, they will always have somewhat similar portrayels.

[Guest]

plays similar characters in his roles, they will always have somewhat similar portrayels.

So, you just proved my point for me?

He could be a guy named Hank in every movie he plays and if he keeps taking the role as Hank, then he's playing the same role every movie. He's playing to type. Half the actors in Hollywood do the same thing, but the "Angel" voice doesn't work for Hal Jordan, and that's exactly what he used.

[annericelover]

Even still, his acting here was terrible. If it's anything like Angelus... yikes!

He's actually great as Angelus. A lot of it is great writing but when you come to it you'll really enjoy that character.

What I liked about Angelus was, that he has got to be Buffy's biggest villain. Similar to how The Joker is Batman's greatest villain. Angelus defeats Buffy plenty of times because he gets into her head and plays off her emotions. While he was considered the 2nd Season villain alongside Drusilla(and to a lesser extent Spike), he will for me be the ultimate villain in the series.

[annericelover]

plays similar characters in his roles, they will always have somewhat similar portrayels.

So, you just proved my point for me?

He could be a guy named Hank in every movie he plays and if he keeps taking the role as Hank, then he's playing the same role every movie. He's playing to type. Half the actors in Hollywood do the same thing, but the "Angel" voice doesn't work for Hal Jordan, and that's exactly what he used.

I meant somewhat similar portrayels, that doesn't mean there all the same in every second of the performance. It also doesn't mean he's a bad actor. I think he's a great actor and did an excellent job as Hal Jordan in JL: The New Frontier.

But if you don't care too much for the shows Buffy or Angel or of his portrayel of his 3 characters of Angel, Angelus and his human self, than I can see why you wouldn't like his other portrayels.

[Guest]

plays similar characters in his roles, they will always have somewhat similar portrayels.

So, you just proved my point for me?

He could be a guy named Hank in every movie he plays and if he keeps taking the role as Hank, then he's playing the same role every movie. He's playing to type. Half the actors in Hollywood do the same thing, but the "Angel" voice doesn't work for Hal Jordan, and that's exactly what he used.

I meant somewhat similar portrayels, that doesn't mean there all the same in every second of the performance. It also doesn't mean he's a bad actor. I think he's a great actor and did an excellent job as Hal Jordan in JL: The New Frontier.

But if you don't care too much for the shows Buffy or Angel or of his portrayel of his 3 characters of Angel, Angelus and his human self, than I can see why you wouldn't like his other portrayels.

I own every season of Buffy on DVD. I like the series just fine. And I didn't say he wasn't a great actor. Like I said, lots of great actors are casted to type, and thus, play the same sort of roles over and over. Voice actors, on the other hand, need to be far more versatile, and I just didn't think he had the range to play Hal Jordan. He sounded like Angel with different lines.

[Malpractice]

Robocop is considered an action movie ?

I always considered it more of a social satire/black comedy than an action movie.

[annericelover]

Robocop is considered an action movie ?

I always considered it more of a social satire/black comedy than an action movie.

The first Robocop film is a dark, sick humor type Action Film

Robocop II, had more of the Black Comedy, lighter feel, but still was a great film

Robocop III I wanna forget, it was just terrible and what's worse is they killed Anne Lewis. Hate it...

The cartoon series was of course, light hearted, just like Tales From the Cryptkeeper was a lighter version of Tales From the Crypt

The Live Action TV Series kept up with what the 1st and 2nd one did and I thought the series was great.